etrianfandomcom-20200214-history
Help:Mapping
On the Etrian Odyssey Wiki, there is a custom namespace, "Map", for documenting all the Maps for all the games. These maps are generated through the use of a lot of templates. In order to make the editing of maps an easier process, this article will describe how these templates work, how you can use them to create maps, and which tools can help you with editing maps. Map Templates For each game, there are 3 specific templates. Map, Map Quadrant, and Map Tile. We'll start with the smallest and work our way up from there. Map Tile Map Tile represents a single tile on the map. It deals with the color that a specific tile should have. When drawing maps, you don't need to deal with this template. It is only used by the mapping engine itself. On the wiki, a Map Tile will eventually be only a color to be used for the coloring of a table cell. Map Quadrant Map Quadrant represents a single quadrant on the map. Maps in the Etrian Odyssey series consist of 5 by 5 tile large "quadrants" marked with A to F and 1 to 7. When drawing maps, you'll work at the level of a single quadrant. On the wiki, a Map Quadrant will eventually be a 5 by 5 table, each cell representing a tile of the map. Map The Map template represents the entire map. It imports the map quadrants of a floor to make the whole map. It also adds the map tabs (A-F, 1-7) to the sides of the map. The final result looks very much like a zoomed out ingame map. Drawing Maps In order to draw a map, you must draw the map quadrant by quadrant. The quadrants need to be saved under the correct name so the Map template can find them. To help with this, a generic (fits for all games) template, "Map quadrant links", is placed on each map page. This template produces links to all the locations of where the map quadrants should be. Making a new Map Quadrant When drawing maps, the most common situation will be where you are drawing a new map - the links to the Map Quadrants are of a red color and the map quadrants simply don't exist yet. In order to draw a map, you will have to make a new map quadrant. To make a new Map quadrant, all you need to do is to follow the edit link that the template "Map quadrant links" provides, and put the appropriate "Map quadrant" template there. For Etrian Odyssey I, the template is named "Map quadrant", for Etrian Odyssey II, the template is named "Map quadrant EO2". This will create an empty map quadrant, like so: Etrian Odyssey I Etrian Odyssey II However, adding things like tiles, walls and icons to this map quadrant would be pretty tough. There exists a gadget called Mapping Tools to assist you in creating maps. This gadget should be enabled by default. If it is not there, you can manually enable it by going to the Gadgets tab in your and check off the tool. The Mapping Tools contain a function labelled "Create Base Map". Pressing the link labelled as such will replace all the content of the Map quadrant's page with an empty Map Quadrant of the appropriate type for the game you are going to draw a map quadrant for. Adding Content to a Map Quadrant Once you have an empty Map Quadrant, you can start drawing. In order to explain how one would draw on a map quadrant, the article will explain how the Map Quadrant template works in a bit more detail first. The Map Quadrant template works by reading in data from a lot of variables. These variables have seemingly strange names (for example, "b3w"), but it's a combination of the following: *The first character, in the example 'b', stands for the row of the tile to which the data in the variable relates to. Just like the Map organizes the Map Quadrants by the use of coordinates, the Map Quadrants organize all the tiles using coordinates. It's almost like a Map Quadrant is a Map made of tiles, instead of Map Quadrants. *The second character, which is a number, in the example '3', stands for the column of the tile to which the data in the variable relates to. Because Map Quadrants are made of 5 by 5 tiles, the row and column can go from a to e and from 1 to 5. *The rest of the variable name, which tends to be one or two characters, in the example "w", stands for the meaning of the variable. **The 'w' stands for "Walls". In this variable, the walls of the tile are noted. **The 't' stands for "Tile". In this variable, the tile type is noted. **The 'i' stands for "Icon". In this variable, any map icons can be added like you would add an image. **The 'd' stands for "Description". In this variable, a description can be added. If a description is added, it will pop up when someone mouses over the tile with the description. **The 'bg' stands for "BackGround". In this variable, the background image type is noted. This variable is mostly unused - right now, it's only used for adding water. In order to draw on a Map Quadrant, you must add data to the variables. The content of the variables needs to follow a strict syntax, however. This is because without a strict syntax, drawing maps would take a very long time because you would need to do everything by hand. By following the syntax, you can draw walls with a single character! Variable content Syntax Tile (t) Tiles, denoted by the 't', follow the following syntax: *For Etrian Odyssey I Maps: **Keep blank for an empty tile. **Write a single 'n' for a 'n'ormal (blue) tile. **Write a single 'd' for a red ('d'amage) tile. **Write a single 'w' for a light-blue ('w'ater) tile. *For Etrian Odyssey II Maps: **Keep blank for an empty tile. **Write a single 'n' for a 'n'ormal (green) tile. **Write a single 'd' for a red ('d'amage) tile. Icon (i) Icons, denoted by the 'i', do not follow any specific syntax. Instead, they place their content directly on the tile. As such, you can put an image, like an Event Marker( ) in the icon variable, and it will display the event marker on the tile. Walls (w) For Walls, denoted by the 'w', the Map Quadrant checks whether the following characters are present, and draws a wall accordingly. *If an N is present, a wall is drawn on the 'n'orthern side. *If an W is present, a wall is drawn on the 'w'estern side. *If an E is present, a wall is drawn on the 'e'astern side. *If an S is present, a wall is drawn on the 's'outhern side. Three important notes here: *Whilst walls are shared between tiles, they still have to be defined by each tile that has a wall. So when a pillar is in the center of a map quadrant, 5 tiles will have walls. *The characters MUST be uppercase. *Whilst the order of the characters NWES does not matter, it is a style standard to write them in NWES order. That way, wall syntax remains uniform. Description (d) Description, denoted by the 'd', will create a tooltip upon mouse over of the tile that the description is attached to. In the description, you can put any basic wiki syntax like you normally would. No tables can be put in the description, however, as these will break the syntax of the template. Descriptions can be used for marking the contents of a treasure box, describing events, listing the name and movement pattern of FOEs, the resources that can be gathered at an itempoint... etc. Background (bg) Background images, denoted by "bg", will add a background image to the tile. The background image may or may not fully cover the tile, but it is still advised to draw a tile (t) as well - if the image link is broken, or the reader's internet connection is slow, the images will take some time to appear. There are no background images for Etrian Odyssey II maps yet. For Etrian Odyssey I Maps, write a single character 'w' to add a Water background image. Mapping Tools The mapping tools can help you with drawing map quadrants. With proper usage, the time spent drawing a single map quadrant can be reduced by 75%! The article will now explain how each section of the mapping tools work. Layout In the center of the mapping tools gadget pane, is a large 5x5 table filled with "T-I-W D-BG". These are links. If you click one of them, the typing cursor will focus on that section of the map quadrant. The location of the links in the table corresponds to the tiles of the map quadrant - the links in the top-left cell are for A1, the links in the top-right cell are for A5, etc. You can use these to quickly draw a corridor of tiles - click the T of A1, type 'n' (EO2), click T of A2, n, T of A3, n, T of A4, n, T of A5, n and you have a line of tiles - a corridor! Once you get used to this style of editing, it becomes very fast. At the top of the mapping tools gadget pane, you can see a set of icons. If you click any of these icons, the file link will be added to the map quadrant. You can use this to add an icon to the map quadrant: First, you click the I of the tile you wish to place the icon on, then, you click the icon you wish to add. On the right side of the mapping tools gadget pane, you can see NWES in their cardinal directions. You can press these to add a single character for a wall to the map quadrant - useful for when you only have one hand available or just don't feel like typing. At the bottom of the mapping tools gadget pane, you can find a function to replace all the content of the page with an empty map quadrant. Notes *The mapping tools automatically adjusts to the game you are making maps for. Icons for EO1 won't show up in the mapping tools for EO2, for example. Examples Whilst the article could show example upon example, there is already a lot of material you could look at from the already existing Maps! Category:Help